The Clone Wars Season 5 Premiere

This Saturday 29th September sees the return of The Clone Wars to our TV screens with the premiere of season 5. If you're not already getting excited about this, then you should be. Three days ago this preview was posted online:

Yes, that's Darth Maul, Savage Oppress and a platoon of Mandalorians meeting with Black Sun on Mustafar. You can see more of what Season 5 has in store for us in the trailer below:

It looks like this season will be absolutely dripping with Star Wars lore, and I for one can't wait!

Star Wars Model-Making at its Finest

Earlier this year I saw images of an incredible snowspeeder model featured at the Model-X 2012 Hobby Show in Auckland, New Zealand. The detail and craft that went into this model blew me away. It truly was a thing of beauty.

This week I had the good fortune of being introduced to the man behind this model – Steve, aka ‘Snibo1’ over at the SWNZ message boards. Steve’s been a fan of the saga since the release of A New Hope in 1977 and has amassed a sizable collection of Star Wars merchandise since then. An incredibly gifted modeller, he’s now turned his attention to scratch-building Star Wars vehicles.

Steve is a member of the Waikato Scale Model Club and won ‘Best Sci-Fi Entry’ last year for his snowspeeder. You can also find him on the Kiwi Modeller message boards under the name ‘Steve’. He's just finished work on a second project – a diorama of Red 4 during a refit approximately six months before the battle of Yavin. The model is based on the old MPC X-Wing Kit which Steve has scaled up to twice the original size. The entire model is around 400mm long.

(Images courtesy of MattG and Steve)

Steve is now working on a fully lit model of the shuttle Tydirium. Fortunately for us, he's considering making these models to order. If you’re keen on adding one of these stunning pieces to your collection, then be sure to get in touch with him via the message boards above.

The Hunt Is On - The Vintage Collection 3 3/4" VC116 Republic Trooper (The Old Republic) Update

As the Vintage Collection prepares to wind down, there's now only one figure left on my huntlist that I'll be keeping an eye out for - VC116 Republic Trooper (The Old Republic).

(Image courtesy of rebelscum.com)

DorkSideToys.com are currently listing a release date of November 30th 2012 for this figure - the same as that which appeared on Amazon.com before the figure became unavailable. I'll be visiting New Zealand in December, so my plan is to spend a few weeks scoping out the shops both here and back home for what I can only assume will be a very sought after figure. If I don't have any luck in stores, I'll have to look into sourcing the figure online when I return to the US.

Clone Wars Volume 2 DVD

Today my third and final Amazon purchase arrived: Volume 2 of the Clone Wars micro series on DVD.

This series was never released on DVD in New Zealand, though fortunately a friend picked up Volume 1 for me in Australia a few years ago. Volume 2 proved to be far more elusive however. When I found it on Amazon for $13.46US ($16.40NZ) I jumped at the chance to add it to my collection. With this acquisition, I've now completed my Star Wars DVD library.

As fond as I am of the the new The Clone Wars CGI series, I think I'll always prefer the micro series. There's something about the animated style that suits the narrative perfectly. In many ways, the Clone Wars series included a lot of elements missing from the prequels.

Fortunately the micro series still stands as canon. Volume 1 (Episodes 1-20) and the first episode of Volume 2 (Episode 21) serve as an important prequel to the events of the CGI series. Some of the most important highlights include the knighting of Anakin, and the reciprocal gifting of R2-D2 and C-3PO to Anakin and Padmé respectively.

We're yet to see whether the remainder of Volume 2 (Episodes 22-25) will bookend the conclusion of the CGI series. These episodes provide a riveting account of the invasion of Coruscant, the kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine, and the events leading up to Anakin and Obi-Wan's arrival in the opening moments of Revenge of the Sith. I've got my fingers crossed that the CGI series finishes just short of - or at least runs parallel to - the telling of these events.

I really can't wait to sit down and watch these episodes again!

The Hunt Is On - The Vintage Collection 3 3/4" VC101 Shae Vizsla (Old Republic Bounty Hunter) Found

Today the second of my Amazon purchases arrived - the incredibly hard to find VC101 Shae Vizla (Old Republic Bounty Hunter).

I managed to pick this up for $24.79US ($30.64NZ) - not a bad price considering the rarity of this figure. Shae will go great with the Darth Malgus I acquired earlier this year!

The Hunt Is On - 30057 Anakin's Podracer Found

Today the first of my Amazon purchases arrived - 30057 Anakin's Podracer.

I'd been hoping to find this set ever since hitting the states, so I was rapt to find it online for only $1.59US ($1.99NZ). This sculpt is a vast improvement on the model from 4485 Mini Sebulba's Podracer &Anakin's Podracer and will go great with the new version of Sebulba's podracer.